Visible wrinkles, particularly those on the face and around the eyes, are one of the most prevalent and undesirable signs of aging. Many consumer products and procedures are devoted to hiding or reducing wrinkles. These products and procedures can be simple and inexpensive, for example, applying make-up, particularly a primer or colored foundation, to simply cover the wrinkles on a consumer's skin. Far more expensive and drastic procedures, such as surgical face lifts and Botox injections are also used to reduce the appearance of wrinkles on the face. There are a plethora of lotions and creams which purport to hydrate the skin making it more supple and reducing the appearance of wrinkles. Some of these liquid products contain active ingredients, for example niacinamide, that help repair and rejuvenate skin over time. All of these products and procedures have drawbacks.
Foundation and other make-up products are often visible, offer minimal texture benefits, and have no lasting effect on the skin. Once the make-up is removed, the skin is the same in appearance as before the make-up was applied. Liquid products can have chronic, acute or both effects on the skin. Hydration and optical effects are common acute benefits, and these benefits wear-off over time. Chronic actives may rejuvenate or repair the skin over time. These chronic benefits take time to occur and are incremental improvements. There are limits to how effective these chronic benefits can be. Plastic surgery and injections of chemicals have a more pronounced, immediate and dramatic effect on the look of a consumer's skin, but these procedures can be very expensive and come with many risks. Plastic surgery has the same risk of failure as any other surgical procedure, including disfigurement.
Attempts have been made to develop new categories of products to improve the appearance of skin without the drawbacks of existing products and procedures. One such family of products can be generally classified as “adhesive, contractile film formers”. Film formers are chemical compositions that when applied to skin, leave a pliable, cohesive and continuous covering. A select group of film formers are also adhesive to skin and even contractile. Wrinkles, in their simplest form, are crevices or valleys in the skin. When an adhesive, contractile film former is applied, the skin at the bottom of the valley or crevice may be pulled to the surface, causing skin look smooth and wrinkle-free. The drawbacks of existing adhesive, contractile film forming products include discomfort caused by the contraction of the skin, irritation of the skin, cracking of the film as the consumer uses her face muscles, incompatibility with other cosmetic products in her regimen, and visibility of the film which is often whitish and noticeable. Curing or reducing one of these problems has, in the past, exacerbated one of the other problems.
Sodium silicate is an adhesive, contractile film forming ingredient used today. High levels of sodium silicate can result in high to moderate skin contraction, resulting in high to moderate immediate wrinkle reduction. Unfortunately, however, the more sodium silicate used, the more skin irritation observed and the more brittle (less durable) the dried film. One skilled in the art may attempt to use plasticizers to combat the problem of a brittle film, however, as stated above resolving this issue exacerbates others—in this case whiteness increases and contraction is reduced. Thus, these solutions are not acceptable to the consumer.
It has further been determined that when contracting films are applied to skin the thickness and evenness of the film is very important to its performance. Finger application has been the standard for applying such films in the past, although some mechanical applicators exist. Neither human fingers nor commercially used applicators are affective for applying a uniform film of a single desired, optimal thickness. Current applicators and finger application result in a splotchy application with areas that are both undesirably too thickness and too thin.
Applicators for cosmetics and skin cream are well known. But contracting films are intended to be invisible, and accordingly they are generally applied clear and dry clear. The tightening results are intended to be visible, but the film itself is intended to be invisible. Thus, the applicator (which is typically a human finger), is important because the applied film cannot be seen. Moreover, thickness and uniformity of the applied film is critical to the films performance. Contrast that to applicators used for make-up and other cosmetics. Make-up can be seen as it is applied. Where it is applied it is visible, and the amount, that is thickness, can also be seen. The uniformity is visible as well, and often non-uniformity is intentionally applied, for example, make-up can be feathered around the edges to reduce its visibility. Moreover, the thickness of the applied film is a matter of preference, not performance, i.e., some women use more make-up than others but the make-up works the same regardless of how it is applied. Thus, the use of applicators for cosmetics and skin cream, is substantially different than the use of an applicator to apply an invisible film in a specific thickness uniformly over the desired area.
Thus, there is a continuing desire to provide applicators that can apply compositions that can improve the appearance of skin, more specifically, reduce the appearance of wrinkles on skin, while balancing the correct amount of skin contraction, film flexibility, lack of film whiteness, contraction resiliency, compatibility with other cosmetic products, and lack of skin irritation. These and other improvements over the art are provided by the present invention.